Romanian culturati and historians, as well as Dutch museum officials, were shocked in January 2025 when thieves blew up a wall at a Netherlands museum to get at one of the great treasures of the National Museum of Romanian History: the golden Cotofenesti helmet, which dates to the 5th–4th centuries BCE. The thieves were seen on surveillance video opening a museum door with a crowbar before an explosion occurred.
But at a press conference in Assen on Thursday, police wearing balaclavas revealed that the helmet was returned, along with two of three golden bracelets dating to the second half of the first century BCE that were also stolen.
The treasured Cotofenesti helmet dates back about 2,500 years, and originated with the Dacia people. It was on view at the Drents Museum, in the Dutch city of Assen, in the show “Dacia: Kingdom of Gold and Silver.”
“We are incredibly pleased,” Corien Fahner of the prosecution service told reporters, according to ABC News. “It has been a roller coaster. Especially for Romania, but also for employees of the Drents Museum.”
The theft made international headlines, and Harry Tupan, then the director of the Drents Museum, told the AP that “It is a pitch dark day for us.” The piece was in the last weekend of a six-month loan from Romania’s National History Museum when thieves made off with it. Three people were arrested within days of the theft, reports ABC.
Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, director of Romania’s National History Museum, was quoted by the AP at the time, saying that it was a heist that “even in our most pessimistic dreams, we would not have believed possible.”
Dutch art theft expert Arthur Brand put forth the worst fears about the object’s fate, saying at the time that since the object is unique and famous, and thus impossible to sell, “They likely went for the gold to—I almost dare not utter the words—melt it.” At the time, gold was valued at about $89,000 per kilo, which is about the helmet’s weight.
Drents Museum director Robert van Langh waxed poetic in an announcement of the recovery of the helmet, writing, “On the Golden Helmet of Cotofenesti, as you can see, two eyes are depicted. They are meant to protect both the wearer and the helmet itself against the Evil Eye. Against misfortune. They have done so successfully for centuries—and even today, they seem to prove their value.”
